Bier, who was the only female nominee in the category, told BBC Breakfast: “This is such a traditional men’s world, and I hope the fact a woman director has won this prestigious prize is going to mean that more non-conventional series and movies are going to be directed by women.”

John Oliver won best variety talk series for his HBO series Last Week Tonight, beating fellow British nominee James Corden, who was nominated for The Late Late Show.

Veep won the outstanding comedy series award for the second year in a row, while its star Julia Louis-Dreyfus won outstanding lead comedy actress for the fifth time.

In her acceptance speech, Louis-Dreyfus said: “Our show started out as political satire but now feels like a sobering documentary.” She dedicated her award to her father, who died on Friday.

Image copyrightGETTY/APImage captionRami Malek and Tatiana Maslany won the trophies for leading actor and actress in a drama series

The outstanding comedy actor gong went to Jeffrey Tambor, who plays a transgender woman in the Amazon series Transparent, for the second year in a row.

Accepting the award, Tambor encouraged the industry to offer more opportunities to the trans community.

“I would not be unhappy were I the last cisgender male to play a transgender female on television. We have work to do,” he said.

Rami Malek won outstanding lead actor in a drama series for his role in Mr Robot – the first time an actor from an ethnic minority has won the award since 1998.

Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black won the outstanding leading actress in a drama prize.

Other big winners of the night included The People vs OJ Simpson – a dramatisation of the OJ Simpson trial of the 1990s, which was broadcast on BBC Two in the UK.